Google manual actions bug is now resolved

Google has confirmed it fixed a bug where some sites with manual actions were not seeing those manual actions in Google Search Console. Daniel Waisberg from Google said Monday morning, “Everything should be back to normal.”

Manual actions disappeared. For some sites that had manual actions, the manual actions notices disappeared from Google Search Console. This began on Wednesday, November 18 and was resolved as of this morning, Monday, November 23.

Small impact. Daniel Waisberg from Google said this was fixed and that “it affected only a tiny number of sites.” It is hard to know if that means that it only affected a small percentage of sites with manual actions or only affected a tiny number of sites that use Google Search Console. I assume, only a tiny number of sites in Search Console have manual actions.

The manual actions are back. Not only has Google confirmed the manual actions are now being displayed, but so are SEOs:

What is a manual action? Google will issue a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. These manual actions are displayed within Google Search Console and stay there until the manual action is lifted. You can learn more about these manual actions over here.

Why we care. Often seeing a “no issues detected” message in the manual actions viewer within Google Search Console is a reason to smile and celebrate, espesially if the site had a manual action. You should now go check your manual actions to confirm that the sites you manage are penalty free.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.